Friendster Now Speaks Tagalog

As Friendster continues to fortify its Asian territory by expanding its operations, it is simultaneously seeking to deliver convenience and value addition to its existing members, largely the Tagalog speaking Filipinos. The leading social network in Asia has announced that the Tagalog speaking population can now avail Friendster services in their local language.

With more than 90 million people communicating in Tagalog globally, Friendster certainly seems to bank upon its new feature that will provide its users the ‘feel at home’ factor.

YouTube Community Members Get License to Remove Individual Video Comments

In a move to empower its community members to handle inappropriate situations, video sharing major YouTube has announced a new feature of allowing members delete their comments already made on videos posted by other users.

The announcement, which first came on YouTube’s official blog, explained that the new feature is the outcome of several user requests. The users are now hopeful that the company’s decision will help improve any unpleasant issue like harassment and bullying, and also enabling users have control over spelling errors and/or comments that may cause problems later.

Digg Feels the Pressure, Slashes Staff

Social news site Digg is facing a tough time as increased competition is hitting its bottom-line hard, thereby leading to forced employee reduction. The California-based firm plans to trim its 75-member staff by around 10% as profits are difficult to come by for the company.

Digg founder and CEO Jay Adelson said that the company is aiming at profits this year, due to which it is going the “conservative” way. Being more conservative means Digg will adopt proactive measures to manage its costs, which includes downsizing of staff in areas that are less core to the company’s objective this year.

How MySpace Targets Users with Free Movie Premiers

When you want to connect with your customers, provide them an opportunity to benefit from you. This tactic is smartly played by MySpace, especially when it comes to luring users during the release time of new movies.

MySpace’s exclusive ‘Black Curtain Screenings’ is an invitation to members for getting free access to the latest movies in popular theatres across different cities, even before they get released publicly.

In order to get a chance to see the movie first, users have to add Black Curtain Screenings to their “top friends”, print out their profile and carry it to the theatre. The entries are granted on a first come first served basis.

Message To Wireless Operators: Users Need Social Networking Desperately!

According to a recent study conducted by mobile instant messaging firm Colibria, mobile users demand social networking facility to be pushed straight to their devices to experience interactive services and communicate with their connects from a sole access point.

The research, which involved 2,000 UK-based online respondents, revealed that 39% of consumers in the age group 18-45 years believe their experience of mobile social networking would significantly enhance if the updates were provided directly to their mobile handsets.

Users Tweet, Tweet and Tweet

Micro-blogging service and popular social network ‘Twitter’ has a big reason to celebrate. According to competitive and search intelligence firm Hitwise, Twitter recorded a tenfold increase in UK online traffic over the last 1 year. Moreover, Twitter even managed to beat social content site Digg in terms of traffic generated from US.

As per Hitwise, Twitter’s rank shot up from 2,953 for the week ending January 19, 2008 to 291 for the week ending January 17, 2009, a jaw-dropping growth in UK online traffic by 974%. This clearly indicates that Twitter has become a hot destination for UK-based internet visitors today.

Friendster Fortifies Its Asian Territory

If you think Facebook, MySpace and other social networks will have easy time capturing the Asia Pacific market, think again! Social networking site Friendster is busy fortifying its Asian territory, with about 28 million users in the Asia Pacific region out of 30 million in total. This means around a whopping 93 percent of the Friendster users belong to Asia Pacific only, with the rest contributing to not even 10 percent.

MySpace Heads North Amidst Slump Economy

‘Come what may, nothing can affect us – not even Recession’ is what seems to be the mantra of social network giant MySpace, as it is successfully tackling the dark clouds hovering over the economy. As the US job market continues to suffer, MySpace along with other social networks have identified techniques to capitalize on the situation.

The Short Story of Burger King ‘Whopper’ App on Facebook

It wasn’t long ago when Facebook teamed up with Burger King to provide a free Whopper to the users in return of sacrificing 10 friends. The popular fast-food chain had released an application on Facebook that enabled users obtain a free coupon to get Whopper burger by deleting 10 contacts from their profile.

Though the unique marketing strategy adopted by Burger King created sensation throughout the Internet, it happened to fade away as quickly with Facebook’s privacy policy posing as an obstruction.

Facebook, in its statement, said that it encourages creativity from companies and developers who use its social networking platform, but also ensures that applications follow user’s privacy and expectations.

Unbelievable! Social Networks Record 93% Growth Since 2006

When social networks first started their journey, who would have thought they will become a buzzword in every corner of the world today? In fact, many believed it to be a temporary phase which would die out soon once they become common and standard. But the destiny of social networking has a different story to tell. Social networks have not only popularized increasingly over the years, but also recorded a growth of an astounding 93% since 2006, according to data released by research firm Netpop.

The winner who grabbed a major share of the pie is Facebook, showing a jaw dropping growth of 500% in the same period, thanks to its open-invitation to all users from a previously school-focused network.